


Day 16: Necklace

by airiustide



Series: Zutara Month 2017: Prompts [14]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Friendship, Loss, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-18 03:42:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13091685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airiustide/pseuds/airiustide
Summary: Katara looks back at her marriage to Aang and her Friendship with Zuko after the war.





	Day 16: Necklace

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender

"Tenzin, please…." Katara begged her son. Her five-month-old was restless and refused to sleep. He had been colic since the day he was born and she couldn't remember the last time she slept well. Bumi and Kya would help calm the baby from time to time but after so long he would get irate if Katara ventured too far from him. She could feel the weight of the last five months put a strain on her mentality and Aang did little to relieve it.

When he had the chance, he always seemed to escape. He popped up when it was convenient and spent little time with her two oldest before going off on Avatar duty when Tenzin's cries became too much. She never felt so alone. All she had were her children. The air acolytes rarely conversed with her, she even had the gnawing feeling that they had little respect for her as well.

Her days with Aang since they started having children turned into a daze. A never ending slow cycle of constant routines and little change. It gave her little confidence and a part of her wished time would reverse.

Katara loved her children, no doubt. They were her everything and there was nothing she'd want to do to change that. But she imagined her future with a lot less strain and tiredness. In a way, Aang was abandoning her.

"Lady Katara." An acolyte interrupted her whirlwind of thoughts. "It's a letter from Fire Lord Zuko."

The waterbender smiled. It had been weeks since Zuko's last letter. Since Mai had passed and he had been raising Izumi on his own, they often wrote one another. She had even taken the time to stay at the palace for several years when he had a hard time recovering from Mai's death and he spent little time with his daughter in morning. It was Katara that put her foot down and pulled Zuko out of his funk in order to get him to be there for his newborn daughter.

Aang wasn't pleased with her staying at the Fire Nation palace to help raise another man's baby. Katara being Katara put Aang in his place and refused to come back home after his demeaning words set her off. Her husband then had begged on his hands and knees for her not to leave him. Even going as far as reminding her about Bumi and the fact that she was carrying Kya at the time. She shut down his attempt to manipulate her and making her feel guilty. It was then she chose to stay, giving birth to Kya at the palace.

Helping raise Izumi as well as her own children kept her occupied, but she was happy and seeing Zuko progress as a parent, even going as far as helping her own, gave her content.

Then Zuko remarried and she knew it was time to move on. It hurt. A part of her was beyond jealous but she knew there was no reason to be. It was she who turned down the Fire Lord's proposal years before right after Aang had proposed to her first. She was conflicted. She had chosen the Avatar already but she also knew how she truly felt for Zuko. Fear set in her heart at the idea of being Fire Lady and how his people would probably never accept her for being Watertribe.

It was with that, she declined his offer.

Katara had never seen her friend so hurt. Guilt set in her heart at the way he forced a laughed and told her to keep the betrothal necklace he had carved for her as a wedding present before leaving her in her own gray thoughts.

She cried that night. Her sorrow felt endless and she couldn't seem to patch it all together clinging onto the necklace Zuko had perfectly carved for her.

After the Fire Lord's second wedding, she knew it was time for her and her children to go back to Republic City. Aang had eagerly welcomed them back home, catering to his wife he had lost for years, promising to be a better husband and father this time around. It was good. For a short time.

Once Tenzin was born, everything went backwards again. The couple was pleased to have an airbender but the constant cries of the boy and Aang's inability to face conflict left her in the dark again.

After rocking Tenzin to sleep, Katara went to sit at the edge of her bed and carefully unrolled the scroll. She smiled reading over the words. The Fire Lord talked about Izumi's eleventh birthday and how she would love to spend it with her Aunt Katara. They would make it to Republic City in a week's time, his wife would be joining them. Despite Katara's jealousy years ago, she had grown to like Ayumi. They would even write to each other once in a while.

Folding the letter, Katara opened the draw of her night stand next to the bed to place it inside. Pursing her lips, she slipped her hand to the back of the draw and pulled out a small red box. She carefully opened it to observe the beautiful trinket that hung on a deep purple ribbon. The stone melded together in a swirl of red and blue, meeting in the middle to create a purple center. The symbol of a dragon wrapped around the moon was well detailed.

Katara brushed a single finger over the symbol. This was her keepsake. Something she could hold onto when everything else seemed to fall apart. Even without his presence, Katara felt whole looking at the necklace Zuko gave her. Tears blurred her visions as she clung tight to the gift clenched in her fists as she held it against her chest.


End file.
